Category: Criminal

As bad as domestic violence can be, false accusations are ruinous, and non-recourse punishment by our injustice system.

The law did not address domestic violence seriously, until recent decades. Then state legislatures passed current domestic abuse laws in fits of passion without thinking of potential abuse by false accusation. Now, vengeful women use these laws as weapons in child custody, and divorce cases, as well as for just plain spite. There is no defense.

The police are required to come and arrest the accused and take him to jail, even if the accuser recants on the spot. Then, the D.A. charges the accused, even if the accuser continues to recant, (the mean women pile on other wild accusations and get restraining orders.).

Meanwhile, the meter is running on legal bills, and in custody situations, the father cannot see his kids.

If he is found not guilty, he is still out thousands of dollars, may have lost his job, and his reputation. On top of that, he has zero chance of filing charges against the accuser; they will not prosecute for fear that such charges”might discourage real victims from coming forth.”

My son-in-law is going through this right now. The accuser claimed he bent her finger, hurt her ribs, and hit her. She had no signs of damage, did not go to a doctor, and waited 10 days, until he was in back surgery, to call the police. He was arrested, charged, and subject to a 90-day restraining order, which kept him from seeing his 18-month-old son. His employer suspended him pending the trial (next February). Legal fees are over $5,000 so far.

Then, she added more far-fetched accusations: he tore her clothes off, chased her around the apartment, pulled out and administered a rape kit to test if she had cheated on him, then produced a polygraph machine and tested her for lying. (She never mentioned the baby at all.) Since then, she has thought up even more charges; and the D.A. just keeps on adding one ridiculous item after another. Oh, did I mention she is crazy?

He is not alone, by a long shot. Look online for stories of false accusation. Sure, most of the time the charges have substance. But in this case, I am sure this woman used these accusations to punish him and keep him from his son.

The only way to change this travesty, is to encourage/threaten your elected officials. If there is clearly no obvious harm to the woman, AND she recants, and admits she did it out of spite/anger, the allegation should be investigated, not ruining the man’s life.

The accused should be treated as innocent until proven otherwise. Until balance and due process are restored, men can always be guilty until proven innocent, and even then they lose.

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Update 10/31/2017: Politicians blame doctors and pharmacies for the opioid crisis, despite the CDC reports that show that illegal drugs are the main source of overdose deaths.

According to the CDC report for 2016, most lethal effects of the opioid epidemic are coming from the streets and not out of doctors’ offices and pharmacies.

“Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is now a major driver of opioid overdose deaths in multiple states, with a variety of fentanyl analogs increasingly involved, if not solely implicated, in these deaths,” the CDC’s Julie O’Donnell, John Halpin, and colleagues reported.

“Fentanyl was involved in more than 50 percent of opioid overdose deaths, and more than 50 percent of deaths testing positive for fentanyl and fentanyl analogs also tested positive for other illicit drugs.”

But where has the government focused attention? President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency, proposed further restrictions on physicians, and, abstinence to potential drug abusers. Why do authorities do this? Because they are ignorant and unable to stop the illegal drug manufacture, sale, or use.

Highly publicized articles, including grandstanding lawsuits by states’ attorneys’ general are pandering to news hungry media and ignoring the pain inflicted on compassionate pain management. Death by dying method (drug overdose), without distinguishing source (legal vs. illegal) is a misleading abuse of authority and power.

The recent blitz campaign against opioid drugs is terribly flawed. According to the latest official data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (as of 2015) more than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2015. Sad, we lost fewer to drugs than to automobiles (38,000), plus homicide (16,000), and slightly fewer than those lost to suicides (43,000).

But of the 52,000, how many died of prescription drugs vs. illegal drugs? Nearly, 30,000 (58%) died from prescription drugs, the balance of 22,000 (42%) died from illicit drugs.

Opioids include prescription drugs derived from opium (such as heroin), and synthetic drugs (e.g. fentanyl) which are both prescribed, and sold illegally (manufactured and sold to drug dealers). These illegal synthetic opioids are largely responsible for the spike in overdose deaths, because they are 100 to 10,000 times stronger than morphine. Drug dealers mix them with heroin or other drugs to enhance the strength. The potency is often inconsistent and unknown to the user. Illegal fentanyl is a popular additive which is 100 times stronger than morphine. Even a slight mismeasurement is multiplied by 100.

CDC is foreclosing options for legal, and legitimate pain medicine, even though illegal drugs are aggravating the overdose statistics. They are implying that doctors are responsible through overprescribing opioids to pain patients. Pain management specialists, who deal with chronic pain patients are often ignoring real suffering by undertreating the pain to avoid criticism from the CDC.

Readers who have real spine and neck problems know what pain is, even after surgery and other efforts to repair the damage. I have talked to people just beginning treatment and surgery, who are being given glorified Advil and other ineffective drugs, when what their pain indicates is opioids. Some people do get addicted and abuse opioids. I do not dispute that. But, not everyone who takes pain medicine becomes an addict, even though they depend on the relief they get from their prescriptions. Dependency is not the same as addiction. It does not automatically lead to ever-increasing desire for more and more.

Carfentanil is the scariest invention yet. 10,000 more powerful than morphine, this relative of fentanyl has been a recent bogeyman for illicit drug users. Primary producer: China (recently banned). This drug is meant to tranquilize elephants. As little as 20 micrograms will kill you.

This scary substance is, knowingly or unknowingly, used as a cheap booster for other illegal drugs, mostly out of Mexico. Think you are buying heroin, or meth? Think again. Houston police recently seized what they thought was methamphetamine and found lethal amounts of carfentanil instead.

The old days of drug abuse are officially over with the advent of this drug. The next terrorist attack could easily be a batch of white powder. A car bomb or suicide vest filled with this drug could kill hundreds or thousands, including first responders.

The point, let legitimate pain-management doctors do their jobs; spend the millions of dollars now devoted to opioid suppression on the true shadow of death: illegal superopiods.

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Interesting; both candidates for President are set for life, no matter who wins. Aside from political ambitions, what other consequences can we think of? Speaking engagements, books, endorsements; contributions to “selected” organizations, trust, foundations?

I think that is why Trump keeps upping the ante. He is probably just as surprised as the pundits that he is the Republican candidate for president. He is geared to parlay events that favor him into big wins. But what if he does not want to win? Could he be testing the limits of our national appetite for trash talk?

And, what about his campaign team? In mid-August, Donald shrugs off the RNC “sheeps clothing” and resumes his “Wolf of Pennsylvania Avenue” regime. An experienced manager tries to get him to smooth public dismay, and assume RNC campaign strategies; Trump demotes him and resumes fraying the tightrope to the White House.

Back to the show without protagonists; it must be amusing and frightening to watch our silliness. All our military power, all our amazing creativity, dimmed by this imbroglio.

Timid, cowering politicians, showing everyone we have no cohesion, no clear direction, no acceptable answers to quell the “masses” who intuit the vacuum of power in our country. Since 9/11 we have been “dazed and confused;” what should we do, whom should we trust; whom should we fear?

Flaying with “Shock and Awe;” useless, ignorant “boots on the ground” in places rich in resources, but impoverished in modernity. We have shown our naiveté by superimposing our values and culture on 7th century tribal people. Iraq was not even a country before Churchill drew a line around three feuding ethnic groups and assigned a titular government. Afghanistan is the graveyard of many invading armies.

Donald Rumsfeld’s endorsement of Donald Trump is emblematic; the man who almost single-handedly emasculated Americas military, feebly blesses a novice in military affairs. Sad, sad, sad.

I always thought of America in superlatives; strong, honest, forthright, steadfast, resourceful, courageous, and blessed come to mind. Our moral infrastructure is in such disrepair, that we cannot stand for anything as a nation. We have such weak bonds with each other, that we waste our energy and resources on things of little consequence in the world. We blame each other for problems no one could create or solve. We are frustrated with the impotence of government to do what it cannot.

Are we still recovering from the shock of a homeland attack?

Have our imaginations and fortitude been diverted to virtual reality?

Are we happy that we chose two weak candidates for President?

Are we that detached from reality?

Do we think this is just another show on TV?

Is our decline that obvious to the rest of the world?

Are Russia and China taking advantage of our frazzled reticence?

Where are the serious leaders we need?

We need citizens to accept individual responsibility and to participate in the things that matter – the true threats and vital problems; not bathrooms and weddings.

As in the TV series House of Cards, the voters are not in charge of anything. If we remain the audience for a reality TV Show, it should be called Decline. You are never fired; in fact, you are stuck in a job you cannot afford to lose. We could wake up like Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Metamorphosis; no control over, and less understanding of what is happening to us.

Saul Alinsky was an important personal mentor to Hillary; his books are modern, grass roots, activist versions of Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Karl Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party.Listen to the rhetoric of semi-incumbent,Hillary Clinton, and parse out the words that are not in Rules for Radicals. She does not have any answers that were not available to another Alinsky apostle, Barack Obama; how can anyone believe she can do what he could not? Not that Trump has any silver bullets either; but voting does not have to be rational; and so it is not.

Kizr Khan waved the Constitution on TV, but he must not have read the powers of the Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court. Had he read and understood Articles I, II, and III, he would know that all these sweeping promises candidates make are not within the powers vested in the Presidency. If they could have, they would have. Obama has stretched every possible executive power; what can any president do without Congress and the rest of the nation? Read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

But I digress. Just think; what if what Donald Trump never intended to become President. It has cost Donald Trump virtually nothing to become a famous world figure and a national icon. He definitely, upset the powers-that-be in the RNC. He awakened an army of citizens who have suffered too long from economic and government impoverishment. Even if the presidency goes to the second most unpopular, and widely distrusted candidate, both she and Trump are set for life.

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Donald Trump speaks the language of the people, as he knows it. When he talks about immigration policy, he has fallen into the “Newspeak” trap set by the media. He could escape this trap and turn it on his enemies.

By now, no one doubts that both Trump and Clinton have real, and growingly serious “enemies.” Some have even asked, “What happens if a party’s candidate dies before the election?”

One set of people upset with Trump are immigrants. The problem with the word “immigrant” is, we need to use more precise language. We need to say whether we mean “citizens with strong identification with immigrant forebears and culture,” or”non-citizens?”

See how easy could that be?

Americans are almost all descendants of immigrants, even though we are not immigrants ourselves. A person who has become a naturalized citizen may describe themselves as an “immigrant” to refer to their country of origin, but they are citizens.

Even though they live here, foreign nationals (legal language: “aliens”) who have not gone through the naturalization process are not citizens. They may still stay here as permanent residents once they apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and are approved. *

Political correctness has eroded the use of the word used by most governments around the world: alien. “Some people” objected to the proper word “alien” and began to use euphemisms to disguise the true status of non-citizens, and aggravate citizens who immigrated legally, or who have a strong immigrant identification, such as “Latino, Latina.” http://www.illegalaliens.us/euphemisms.htm)

If Trump wants to shock the sensibilities of the PC crowd, why not use the right words:

Illegal AlienAlso known as an “Undocumented Alien,” is an alien who has entered the United States illegally and is deportable if apprehended, or an alien who entered the United States legally but who has fallen “out of status” and is deportable.